Technical vs leadership capability - does one matter more than the other?

For much of the past two decades, technical expertise was the currency that carried senior careers forward. Deep functional knowledge, a track record of delivery, mastery of the discipline - these were the credentials that would open doors and justify c-suite appointments. Proof of technical capabilities meant safety, or in other words ‘they can do the job’.

There has been a shift though, not away from technical capability as it still matters and always will, but the weight placed on it relative to other qualities has changed considerably.

What the market is asking for now

The operating environment most organisations are facing right now is different to five years ago due to geopolitical instability, the rapid adoption of AI, regulatory complexity, and cultural changes across hybrid workforces.

We're hearing consistently from boards and hiring decision-makers that they are prioritising behavioural qualities alongside technical capability, and in some cases, above it, particularly resilience and adaptability, the ability to scenario plan across competing pressures, and judgment when there isn't a linear or clear picture.

These aren't ‘soft skills’ in the way that phrase is sometimes used dismissively. They are, in the current environment, the skills that determine whether a leader succeeds or stalls.

The executives who are being appointed to the most complex roles are not always those with the deepest technical backgrounds. They operate with confidence in ambiguous conditions, bring people together across functions when there is no clear playbook, and make brave and sometimes bold decisions without waiting for perfect information.

The ceiling that technical expertise alone creates

This isn't a comfortable observation for executives who have built their careers on functional depth. But it's worth sitting with. Technical mastery tends to be most valued in roles where the problems are well-defined, the environment is relatively stable, and there is confidence in a clear path forward with enough analysis. Those conditions are becoming increasingly rare at senior level.

What happens instead is that leaders face situations where there is no precedent, data is incomplete, and where the right answer won't be clear until after the decision has been made. In those moments, leadership must have the capability to move - decisively, with influence, and with enough composure that the people around them are confident to follow.

The executives who thrive in these conditions tend to describe their approach as brave rather than perfect. They've learned to trust their judgment even when they can't fully substantiate it, to move from planning to action to iteration without waiting for certainty that never arrives. That's a fundamentally different muscle to technical expertise, and it's built differently.

How to build what the market is looking for

The good news is that leadership capability is not fixed. It develops through experiences that stretch people beyond their functional comfort zone.

Some examples where we see this - leading through a restructure, taking on a scope that's larger than anything they've managed before, stepping into a business context that's unfamiliar and having to adapt quickly.

Executives who are thinking deliberately about this tend to seek out what might be called stretch assignments rather than straightforward progressions. A turnaround, transformation or a role that crosses into unfamiliar territory. These experiences build the adaptability and judgment that boards are increasingly prioritising, in a way that deepening technical expertise in a stable environment simply doesn't.

It's also worth thinking about how you demonstrate these qualities, not just whether you have them. In hiring processes, we're seeing more clients probe for behavioural evidence - not just year-on-year results, but how a leader has responded when things didn't go to plan, how they've reset strategy mid-flight, how they've brought teams through genuine uncertainty. Being able to speak to that specifically, with clarity and without deflection, is itself a leadership signal.

A different way of thinking about the next move

For executives navigating their careers in the current market, the question worth asking is not only what roles align with my technical background. It's where the experiences are that will build the kind of leadership capability the market is starting to value most.

That might mean a move that looks sideways on paper but exposes you to a different kind of complexity. It might mean taking on scope that feels uncomfortable. It might mean choosing a business context - a founder-led environment, a turnaround, an organisation in genuine transition that will demand more from you as a leader than a stable, well-resourced corporate ever would.

Technical expertise got many executives to where they are. Developing the leadership capability to complement it is what will take them further.